Controversial Frenchtown project offers concessions to neighors

A five-story affordable housing complex is under construction at Frenchtown Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2016. The Casanas Village, located near the intersection of Macomb and Brevard streets sits on 2.73 acres.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)Buy Photo

The developer of a proposed $50 million luxury student housing project in the heart of Frenchtown has offered to give back a portion of land along Macomb Street for the community.

Landmark Properties of Athens, Georgia, wants to buy less than an acre of city land connected to the other properties the company has lined up for the project, including the property where Strong and Jones Funeral Home has been since 1947.

As originally proposed, the five-story, 256-unit, 800-space parking garage development called The Standard would accommodate more than 900 university students and take up the entire block.

Many Frenchtown residents were outraged over the size of the project as well as the city even contemplating selling off property it had bought for Frenchtown business development in the first place. They showed up en masse at last month’s City Commission meeting where the land sale was first brought up, forcing the commission to delay voting on it to facilitate negotiations between residents and the developer.

Ben Pingree, director of the county’s Department of Place, went over the details of the concessions city and county planners have forged with the developer over lunch at Gritz N Greens restaurant Thursday. Part of that discussion included an explanation of what the developer is already entitled to build under current zoning, he said.

“Nobody is happy with it, but it’s moving forward,” attorney Mutaqee Akbar said after the meeting.

Although lot of people in the community are against the project, the concessions will help soften the blow.

"My point is if the development goes up there needs to be something to memorialize Frenchtown," Akbar said. "The only way that happens is if the city sells its portion."

Nonetheless, he said, there is still going to be some backlash.

Jim Bellamy, president of the Frenchtown Neighborhood Improvement Association, repeatedly told residents the project was a done deal and the best people could hope for would be to get concessions from the city and the developer.

After a series of meetings with residents and business owners, that is exactly what’s been hammered out.

Landmark has offered to give back 3,300 square feet, or 33 percent of the city lot for a 30-foot wide community plaza without reducing the $485,000 purchase price. Landmark also promised to dedicate the northwest corner for a business or other non-residential use, which would bring the total space to 41 percent

The plaza would have space for pop-up vendors and a historic display that the developer would contribute $50,000 to build.

The developer has also agreed to scale back the building height on the city property from the allowed 90 feet height to around 65 feet to keep it in scale with the Renaissance Center across the street. In addition, Landmark has promised to work with the Office of Economic Vitality to provide outreach to minority businesses and community residents for construction contracts and jobs.

The proposal will be discussed further at a Frenchtown community meeting at the Lincoln Community Center from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

It will come back to the City Commission April 26.

Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter@jeffschweers.